Natural Sciences 101,
Section 5, Fall 2009
Introduction to
Meteorology and Climate
Last updated: November 2, 2009
11:00 pm
11/02/09
Reading
assignments now on line
10/25/09
Reading
assignments for the week now on line
LAB 2 GROUP: Turn in your lab write-ups on Tuesday, Oct
27.
Lab Group 3: Pick up your lab equipment Tuesday, Oct 27.
10/21/09
April
Chiriboga’s office hours are 9-12 Thursday morning in PAS 546 the Atmospheric
Sciences library.
3rd
and 4th lab group lists now on line
10/20/09
LAB
2 GROUP: Come
early to class to turn in your equipment and pick up the 3rd sheet
of directions that describes how to writeup your laboratory results to be
turned in next week
10/19/09
This
week’s reading assignments on line
GENERAL
LAB INFO: (April Chiriboga is the primary contact
for the Labs)
Lab
materials can be picked up in lecture on the start date for your lab group (6 Oct. for the 2nd group). If you are absent
that day, or do not pick up all the materials, you must arrange to pick them up
during April’s office hours. You are responsible to looking over the equipment
list, and making sure that you have all the equipment needed to complete the
lab.
Lab
materials are to be returned *within* the two weeks following the start date
for your lab group. If you wish to hand in your materials early, you may do so
during April’s office hours. The official deadline for handing in lab equipment
is *in lecture*, two weeks after your start date (20
Oct. for the 2nd group). Late equipment returns will result
in points off your lab report.
Upon
returning your equipment, you will receive a sheet of paper with supplementary
information. This information will help you to write a complete lab report. You
may miss points if you do not consider the information contained on this sheet
of paper.
Lab
reports are due one week (27 Oct. for the 2nd
group) after the return of your equipment. Please come see April, or
email April if you have questions before that time. April is happy to review
lab reports early. Late lab reports will result in lost points.
Quiz2 grades and Answer Table now on line; Grades are listed with
your clicker ID. Contact TA, Mike
Stovern, if you have questions about grades.
Sept
21: Last Thursday’s class was the last
class where it was OK to forget your clicker. From now on, not bringing your clicker
will result in your attendance not being counted and loss of points on Quiz. So
please remember to bring you clicker to every class from now on.
Sept
17: Quiz 1
grades now online. CLICKERS: There
are still about 5 students who do not have their student IDs entered correctly
in their clickers. The problem for
most of these is the leading ‘S’ is missing so, for example, 2551669 has been
entered when what should have been entered was S02551669. Those
with incorrect student IDs will loose points on their quiz.
Please
make sure your student ID is entered correctly into you clicker. Your student
ID begins with S0 followed by 7 digits. Again the directions for doing so are
given below under the “NEW Quick guide to
setting up your clicker”
CLASS LISTSERV: There
are still 80 students who are not on the
class is now on the class listserv.
Those who have not, please send the one line e-mail to the listserv to
add yourselves to the listserv or else you will not receive any important
updates sent between classes.
NEWS…
Sep
17: Pictures of damage from hurricane Jimena at
Guaymas/San Carlos (courtesy of Carlos Minjarez), NASA 09/03/09 photo
Sep
16: NOAA reports August 2009
warmest August ocean temperatures on record NCDC
Sep
15: Dept of the Interior launches
climate strategy NY
Times.
Sep
15: Relation between Antarctic ice
sheet formation and CO2 levels 34 Myr ago Reuters
Sep
7: Taiwan prime minister steps down
because of slow response to ~August 9, 2009 Typhoon Morakot which dumped 109
inches of rainfall in 3 days on southern Taiwan NY
Times photos wiki satellite-info
Sep
7: Warmest Arctic temperatures in
2000 years CNN JournalArticle
Aug
31: Hurricane Jimena (now a category 5 with sustained winds of 155 mph) is
coming our way: madweather blog Maps of forecasted tracks
Aug
29: Fires
in LA
Aug
26: US
Chamber of Commerce threatens EPA with lawsuit over climate change
Aug
24: Senate
hearing on climate change in National Parks
CLICKERS ARE AVAILABLE AT THE BOOKSTORE AT CLASS MCB 181R
Bring
your interwrite PRSRF clickers to
first class
NEW
Quick guide to setting up your clicker:
pdf
On
a sheet of paper or 3x5 card, hand in your name and
your clicker radio ID so we can make sure you are correctly loaded
into the class roster. If for some
reason you did not do so at the end of Thursday’s (Aug 27) class, do so at the
beginning of Tuesday’s (9/2) class.
See the quick guide above for directions. Make sure your student ID begins with the letter, S.
Class
Hours and Location: Section 5: 2:00 PM
– 03:15 AM (T,Th) in ILC 120.
Review
Sessions
on Wednesday before Thursday quiz. (1) Time: 6:00 PM, Location:
CHEM 111 (holds 250 students). (2) Time: 3 PM, Location: PAS 488 (holds 20 students)
Instructor: Dr. E. Robert
Kursinski (kursinski@atmo.arizona.edu, PAS 580, 621-2139,
621-6831).
Teaching
Assistants:
Mike Stovern (stovern@atmo.arizona.edu, Office: PAS TBD,
Telephone: TBD)
April
Chiriboga (april.chiriboga@gmail.com,
Office: PAS TBD, Telephone: TBD)
Office
Hours:
Dr. Kursinski: by appointment; M. Stovern: Wed 12-2
PM and by appointment; A. Chiriboga: Thurs
9-12 AM and by appointment. Office hours may be in PAS 546, the
Atmospheric Sciences library.
Class
listserv: Please add yourself to the class
listserv
in order to receive important email updates outside of class. To add yourself, send a one-line email
to the address: listserv@listserv.arizona.edu. The one line should read
SUBSCRIBE
nats101s5fall09 firstname lastname
where
you substitute your first and last names for firstname and lastname.
Required
Text: Essentials of Meteorology-An
Invitation to the Atmosphere, 5th Ed. (ISBN 0-534-42264-0) by C. Donald Ahrens
Highly Recommended: Study Guide for Essentials of
Meteorology, 5th Ed. (ISBN 0-534-42266-7) by C. Donald Ahrens. Available
by order at bookstore or online.
Other Required Material: interwrite PRSRF
clickers, used for daily student-to-instructor
feedback, attendance (see below), etc.
Course Description: An introduction to the
science of weather and climate, including (time permitting) atmospheric
composition, energy balance, wind systems, genesis of fronts and cyclones,
precipitation processes, clouds, severe weather, weather prediction, climate
and global warming and optical phenomena. Emphasis will be given to phenomena
that have strong impacts on human activities and economic livelihood such as
tornadoes, hurricanes, El Nino, global warming, ozone depletion, and air
pollution. The fundamental importance of physics, chemistry and mathematics to
the atmospheric sciences will be explored.
Grading Policy: Final grade will be
based on scores from your five best
regularly-scheduled quizzes, impromptu “pop quizzes”, a lab and a comprehensive
final examination. Scheduled quizzes (~every other Thursday) will consist of
approximately 20 total questions that are multiple choice and/or short answer.
Extra credit questions may appear on some quizzes. Each quiz will cover new
material presented up through the end of the latest lecture period. There will
be six quizzes during the term. The quiz
dates are given on the schedule below. Students who arrive late on quiz/exam dates, where late is
defined as arriving after the first student turns in her/his quiz/exam, will not be not allowed to take the quiz/exam. Because
the lowest score among the six quizzes will be
excluded from the course grade, there will be NO
MAKE-UP QUIZZES. Bring your CAT CARD on quiz days!
LABS: Each student will do one lab this
semester. There are two labs to
choose from, 1. Determine how much oxygen is in the air and 2. Determine the
latent heat of the melting of ice.
You will take equipment with you for two weeks to make the measurements,
then return it, receive more information on how to analyze the results, write
up your results and hand them in.
We will break the labs up into 3 or 4 groups on each lab so that at any
time about 15% of the class is working on Lab 1 and another 15% are working on
Lab 2. Further instructions and a
more detailed schedule will follow.
Pop-quizzes will consist of one to a few questions.
The format of the questions will be primarily multiple choice questions answered
via the clickers.
They will be added to your total quiz score. As incentive to “keep up with the
program”, pop quizzes may include material that is contained in the reading
assignment for that day’s lecture.
The final will be Thursday December
17, 2009 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. in ILC
150. No Exceptions. Bring your CAT CARD to
the final! The final will consist
of multiple-choice questions and/or short answer questions. Many will be taken verbatim from the old quizzes.
The lab will count 20% of your grade. If your score on the final exceeds the
average of your five best quizzes, the quizzes
will comprise 50% and the final the remaining 30% of your course grade. Otherwise
the quizzes will comprise 60% and the final the remaining 20%. Any student with
an average of 90% or better on all six
quizzes and their lab will be exempt from
the final and will receive an "A'' for the course. There will be NO EXTRA CREDIT PROJECTS. No Exceptions…so plan
accordingly!
|
Course Grading
Scale |
||||
|
A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
|
90% or higher |
89.99-80.0% |
79.99-65.0% |
64.99-55.0% |
Below 55.0% |
Expectations: The reading
assignments for each day's lecture are listed below. You are expected to complete the assigned reading before the lecture. Please ask
questions about the material during lecture, office hours or review sessions.
Per University policy, every student is expected to devote a minimum of two
hours outside of class to studying, reading, etc. for every contact hour in
classroom. See http://catalog.arizona.edu/2004-05/policies/enrpol.htm#unit.
Attendance Policy: Attendance is
mandatory. I will tally attendance during the semester. After three unexcused
absences, you will be issued an administrative drop (prior to the end of week
8) in accord with University of Arizona (UA) policy. http://catalog.arizona.edu/2009-10/policies/classatten.htm.
Bottom line: Just come to class.
Academic Integrity: The UA Code of Academic
Integrity, Code of Conduct and Student Code of Conduct are strictly followed. All
students are responsible for knowing the codes and abiding by them. http://w3.arizona.edu/~studpubs/policies/ppmainpg.html.
You can submit complaints about fellow students online at http://dos.web.arizona.edu/uapolicies/index.html.
Literacy Requirements: There is a science literacy
requirement for this course. For instance, we use scientific notation for
writing numbers (especially for rather large or small ones). We specify units for all physical
quantities (e.g. meters for height, etc.).
Natural Sciences 101,
Section 5, Fall 2009
Introduction to Weather and Climate
Schedule of Topics and Links to Lecture Slides
All Subject to Change, So COME to Class!
|
Week |
Tuesday |
Thursday |
|
Aug 24 – Aug
28 |
Introduction: Why study the
atmosphere? Vertical structure of
the atmosphere |
Density, Pressure
& Temperature Weather vs. Climate |
|
Aug 31 – Sep
4 |
Heat transfer &
Radiation |
Heat transfer &
Radiation |
|
Sep 7 – Sep
11 |
Radiation &
seasons |
Seasons &
Temperature variations |
|
Sep 14 – Sep
18 |
Seasons &
Temperature variations (cont’d) |
Atmospheric Moisture
& clouds |
|
Sep 21 – Sep
25 |
Condensation, fog
& clouds |
Vertical temperature
structure & precipitation |
|
Sep 28 – Oct
2 |
Precipitation &
air pressure |
Laws of motion &
upper level winds |
|
Oct 5 – Oct
9 |
Curved flow and
friction |
|
|
Oct 12 – Oct
16 |
Local and regional
atmospheric circulations |
Global Circulation, Ocean atmosphere
interaction |
|
Oct 19 – Oct
23 |
ENSO and air masses |
Fronts |
|
Oct 26 – Oct
30 |
Fronts and ET
cyclogenesis |
Weather forecasting |
|
Nov 2 – Nov
6 |
Stability (Sept 24) and thunderstorms |
Lightning and
tornadoes |
|
Nov 9 – Nov
13 |
|
|
|
Nov 16 – Nov
20 |
|
|
|
Nov 23 – Nov
27 |
|
Thanksgiving |
|
Nov 30 – Dec
4 |
|
|
|
Dec 7 - 8 |
|
|
Required Reading Assignments for Above Lectures
Essentials of Meteorology: An Invitation to the
Atmosphere 5th Ed.
by C. Donald Ahrens
|
Week |
Tuesday |
Thursday |
|
Aug 24 – Aug 28 |
|
1-22; 435-437 (Appendix A),
441-442 (Appendix C) |
|
Aug 31 – Sep 4 |
25-42 |
25-42, Practice Quiz |
|
Sep 7 – Sep 11 |
42-53 |
55-64 QUIZ 1 |
|
Sep 14 – Sep 18 |
65-74 |
79-97 |
|
Sep 21 – Sep 25 |
98-108 |
QUIZ 2 |
|
Sep 28 – Oct 2 |
111-113, 118-137 |
141-152 |
|
Oct 5 – Oct 9 |
152-165 |
QUIZ 3 |
|
Oct 12 – Oct 16 |
169-183, 365-366 |
184-200 |
|
Oct 19 – Oct 23 |
202-214 |
214-231, QUIZ 4 |
|
Oct 26 – Oct 30 |
235-248 |
248-260 |
|
Nov 2 – Nov 6 |
112-117, 263-276 |
277-296 |
|
Nov 9 – Nov 13 |
|
QUIZ 5 |
|
Nov 16 – Nov 20 |
|
|
|
Nov 23 – Nov 27 |
|
Thanksgiving |
|
Nov 30 – Dec 4 |
|
QUIZ 6 |
|
Dec 7 - 8 |
|
|
Natural Sciences 101,
Section 05, Fall 2009
Introduction to Weather and Climate
Questions for Review to Accompany Lectures and Reading
Essentials of Meteorology: An Invitation to the
Atmosphere 5th Ed.
by C. Donald Ahrens
|
Week |
Tuesday |
Thursday |
|
Aug 24 – Aug 28 |
|
1.2, 1.3, 1.10, 1.14,
1.18, 1.19, 1.21, 1.22 |
|
Aug 31 – Sep 4 |
2.1-2.4, 2.7, 2.9-2.12 |
|
|
Sep 7 – Sep 11 |
2.7-2.10, 2.12, 2.14-2.17 |
3.1, 3.2, 3.5, 3.6, 3.14 |
|
Sep 14 – Sep 18 |
3.12, 3.13, 3.16, 3.18,
3.19 |
4.1-4.8, 4.10, 4.11, 4.13,
4.14 |
|
Sep 21 – Sep 25 |
4.15-18 |
|
|
Sep 28 – Oct 2 |
5.3, 5.10-17, 5.20, 5.24 |
6.1-6.3, 6.8-6.14 |
|
Oct 5 – Oct 9 |
6.15-6.25 |
|
|
Oct 12 – Oct 16 |
7.3-7.9 |
7.11-7.17 |
|
Oct 19 – Oct 23 |
7.18-7.19, 8.1-8.11 |
|
|
Oct 26 – Oct 30 |
8.12, 8.14-8.21 |
9.1, 9.4-9.11, 9.14, 9.17 |
|
Nov 2 – Nov 6 |
5.4-5.8, 10.1-10.5, 10.8,
10.10-10.11 |
10.16-10.21, 10.27, 10.31 |
|
Nov 9 – Nov 13 |
|
|
|
Nov 16 – Nov 20 |
|
|
|
Nov 23 – Nov 27 |
|
Thanksgiving |
|
Nov 30 – Dec 4 |
|
|
|
Dec 7 - 8 |
|
|
Natural Sciences 101,
Section 05, Fall 2009
Introduction to Weather and Climate
LAB GROUPS
|
|
Lab 1: Oxygen |
Lab 2: Latent Heat |
|
Group 1 |
||
|
Group 2 |
||
|
Group 3 |
||
|
Group 4 |
Lab Schedule
|
Week |
Tuesday |
Thursday |
|
Aug 24 – Aug 28 |
|
|
|
Aug 31 – Sep 4 |
|
|
|
Sep 7 – Sep 11 |
|
|
|
Sep 14 – Sep 18 |
Group 1: Pick up your lab equipment |
|
|
Sep 21 – Sep 25 |
|
|
|
Sep 28 – Oct 2 |
Group 1: Turn in lab equipment, Pick up lab writeup
directions |
|
|
Oct 5 – Oct 9 |
Group 1: Turn
in Lab writeup Group 2: Pick up your lab equipment |
|
|
Oct 12 – Oct 16 |
|
|
|
Oct 19 – Oct 23 |
Group 2: turn in lab equipment, Pick up lab writeup
directions |
|
|
Oct 26 – Oct 30 |
Group 2: Turn
in Lab writeup Group 3: Pick up your lab equipment |
|
|
Nov 2 – Nov 6 |
|
|
|
Nov 9 – Nov 13 |
Group 3: turn in lab equipment, Pick up lab writeup
directions |
|
|
Nov 16 – Nov 20 |
Group 3: Turn
in Lab writeup Group 4: Pick up your lab equipment |
|
|
Nov 23 – Nov 27 |
|
Thanksgiving |
|
Nov 30 – Dec 4 |
Group 4: turn in lab equipment, Pick up lab writeup
directions |
|
|
Dec 7 - 8 |
Group 4: Turn in
Lab writeup |
|
